By: Trevor McGrath August 22 at 4:35 PM  · 

The first chapter from my book “Rebuilding the Temple – Templar Gnosticism”

((((((((((Grace and chivalry))))))))))

Grace is refined movement, or a refined and purified means of conveyance. Elegance or spiritual finesse, which is quite feminine in its nature, though by feminine I mean energetic gender instead of strictly physical gender. Chivalry would be the masculine counterpart to grace, and chivalry has been used to protect grace interestingly enough in regards to certain orders and priories protecting certain things by literally any means necessary. Grace is the foundation of everything that this book mentions. The cornerstone, as well as the stone that the builder rejected. In order to rebuild the Temple of Christ (i.e. the human body) grace is called for. Gold fever would have one looking to jump to the highest reaches right away. Gold fever would have one looking to build a roof where there is no foundation.

The story of Icarus captures what is commonly meant by “gold fever.” The starry-eyed stroll to obtaining something ultimate and having it all at once, and the result being the seeker left worse off than they were before carrying out their quest. Icarus wanted the sun. He knew the sun was the bearer of life/light. Sounds like Lucifer right? The light bearer? Well both ended up plummeting to earth, falling to density. Icarus ignored his father’s warning and flew so close to this “source of life” in the sky that the heat emanating from it melted his wax wings and down he went, falling down into the sea. If he would have landed on it he wouldn’t have been any better off. This is “gold fever.” The lust for some external projection of our own divinity. The seeker seeking his or herself externally and winding up like the dog/god chasing its tail/tale.

This same allegory can be seen clearly in various stories, one of my personal favorites being the 1998 Darren Aronofsky film “Pi.” The main character Max Cohen lusts for the “ultimate number sequence” to determine and predict trends in the stock market. He found what he was looking for and it ended up driving him to his limits, leading him into more trouble than he had faced before he even knew the sequence. At the beginning he mentions how his mother told him not to look into the sun, and how he didn’t listen which lead to him having terrible side effects that lasted up through his adult years which came full circle at the end of the movie, though I don’t want to say much more and ruin it for those who have yet to see it. It’s the same story as Icarus. It also reflects the story of Hiram Abiff. King Solomon hired Hiram Abiff to be the chief architect of building Solomon’s temple. He was a master builder, a master stone mason. There came a day where he was cornered by 3 lower stone masons who were threatening to kill him if he didn’t give them his “secret password.” I will touch on this more later on in regards to how this aligns with the movie “Pi” but the gist to this story of Hiram being murdered once again shows the illness that comes from us externalizing our own divinity. The lower stone masons who killed him externalized their ability to have an epiphany and one cannot give an epiphany to another, especially not under life threatening pressure. He wouldn’t have been able to tell them the “secret password” even if he tried. Words do little to no justice in relaying the essence of an epiphany. The epiphany can only come from within, just as the pineal gland is within and named in Latin as “epiphysis cerebri.” The portal from the polarized brain back to the unified heart where all truth can be found. The treasure truly is in the chest. In your chest. And this comes full circle back to grace. Grace comes from the heart.

The word “grail” and the word “grace” are phonetically related. The grail is a symbol of grace. I would say “divine grace” but that would be redundant. Only the starry-eyed follow their “gold feverish” ways on a quest to find some cup of antiquity that they can hold in their hands. The quest for the grail is a wild goose-chase if we are perceiving solely from the head/ego. Only the heart can read allegory and see that it is grace that grants us eternity and makes us truly rich.

Now to cover chivalry. The counterpart to grace.

In the grail legend we know as “King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” the character Percival faces a test of both grace (feminine) and chivalry (masculine).

He was taught by those who held higher rank to not speak to those of higher rank unless they addressed him first. The Fisher King (Merovingian allegory) fell deathly ill and Percival did what he was told, he said nothing. He denied his services to the king because the king didn’t end up addressing him. When he denied his services, his whole world disappeared from all around him and he was left with nothing more than one friend who helped him in all of the ways he needed. This friend of his is a hermit by the name of Trevizrent, which according to some was a character based on the archetype Thoth/Hermes. Percival came to the realization that he should have helped the fisher king despite what he was previously told to do from the higher-ups. This is the core of chivalry. To do what you know in your heart is right despite what orders you are given. In a societal structure that would gladly fine a citizen for feeding the homeless, will you withhold sharing with those who are in need? Or, will you do what you know is right despite the penalty you might face?

There’s a song by the band “Temple of The Dog” called “Hunger Strike” that relays this core principle beautifully in the first lines of the song.

Those lyrics being:

“I don’t mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadence/

But I can’t feed on the powerless if my cup’s already overfilled/”

To take this song literally would be to interpret it as the “Robin Hood philosophy” of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, and though thievery is never ok in the eyes of chivalry, the general metaphor stands. That’s the beauty of music, it’s doesn’t have to be literal to be beautiful. Such is life.

At times chivalry comes with force. To add a bit more to the general essence of the topic at hand, chivalry is knowing when, who and where to serve. It’s also knowing when, who and where to defend, if at all.

It’s easy for a monk who lives in the Himalayan mountains to preach how we should never resort to violence. They don’t live in south side Chicago. If they did and held the mentality of “no violence ever” then they likely wouldn’t live long enough to teach others how to find peace within. That mentality if held in the city could cause one to turn their head or just walk away as a woman gets raped in the same ally they’re walking down. Or to sit and meditate for peace while she screams for help. Is that truly the epitome of equanimity? To clear the air, I don’t condone or discourage violence. I don’t see it as good or bad, it all depends on the situation.

There’s a time and place for everything and there’s a huge difference between offending and defending. A difference in intent.

The lines get blurred and we can take on the misconception that defending someone is the act of offending the offender but if you look at intent instead of the act followed by the intent, they’re two completely different things. Clearly we have the ability to discern. We are channels, which by default means we are also channels of karma at times. It would be unjust of you to let someone get raped right in front of you just as it would be unjust of you to be the physical offender. Physical intervention in the case of seeing someone being raped isn’t ultimately offensive though, it’s defensive.

Zen doesn’t need to be a constant state of conveyance. To practice non-duality while seeing violence as inherently bad certainly is a contradiction. What good is zen when you’re sitting in a burning house?.. Well, I guess it would be a one way ticket back to source after burning alive, but is that really necessary? In a non-violent environment zen could be default and have little to no negative repercussions.

There’s a level of contrast everywhere but in the case of never needing to implement violence, Oh how nice it would be to live in the Himalayan mountains.

I’ll ask again. In a societal structure that would gladly fine a citizen for feeding the homeless, will you withhold sharing with those who are in need? Or, will you do what you know is right despite the penalty you might face? If the penalty is worth it to you, then nothing more needs to be said. You will either do what is right or neglect your inner compass. Let us realize that the word “compassion” has the word “compass” in it.

This present day societal structure is crumbling before us because it is not based on heart-based morals. It knows no grace or chivalry; therefore, it is built on sand. And as we know, the stone that the builder rejected will be the head cornerstone. Compassion, grace and chivalry, all three being one trinity of morality. This trinity of morality is something that we all know in our hearts. It is the epitome of natural law. Only the wicked would proclaim themselves of higher rank, inbreed to sustain a bloodline and in turn breed inbred humans who are mentally unstable yet assigned to the illusion that they rule the planet while wearing golden crowns that through super-conductivity overstimulate their head and drive them into deeper insanity and

“big-headedness” manifesting from energetic inflammation. This big-headedness desecrates the temple. This is the false light. The light that projects from a place void of grace, chivalry and compassion. So may you take everything you learn to your heart because if you wear it as a form of identity or wear it as a golden crown (so to speak) then it will only be negative karma at the end of the day and mislead you from the essence of life. Lets consider that logic isn’t the totality of what is ultimately right. Logic is a tool, as is the brain. You know the saying. “The brain makes a great servant but a terrible master.” When we are all wrapped up in sheer logic being the epitome of righteousness we tend to fall into a cold, harsh outlook that may even reflect jadedness or self-righteous indignation. For example, if one has no money it’s completely logical to rob someone of theirs. It makes complete sense to the brain to do that. It adds up as something that would be ideal, but that choice of course is void of heart. Void of intuition or gnosis. Void of acknowledgment for natural law, or even more so, the golden rule.